It just about killed me to miss the Season 4 premier of Downton Abbey last Sunday night.

I’ve heard the episode was somewhat anticlimactic, but it’s the nostalgia factor I crave. Hunkering down for some literary escape ala Masterpiece Theater is a necessary part of surviving January. And I’ll admit to being curious about what happened next after the shocking death of Matthew Crawley.

When I read an article this morning discussing the possibility that Lady Mary was suffering from postpartum depression, I really wished I had seen it so I could weigh in with my opinion.

Without having seen the entire episode– I’ve been catching up via PBS.com, in sneaky bites this morning–I would initially think that Mary’s despondency is a result of grieving her dear departed husband. After all, she seemed perfectly normal just after the baby was born in the last scene Mary and Matthew played together.

Going from the high of giving birth to the low of learning your husband was killed in a car crash, is profoundly traumatic enough to trigger deep depression, regardless of the presence of surging and receding postpartum hormones.

But postpartum depression doesn’t always appear instantly. It can descend on mothers any time in the first year after giving birth.

“Poor little orphan,” is the first pet name we hear Lady Mary call her son.
“The truth is, I don’t think I am going to be a very good mother,” Mary confides to her grandmother, the Dowager Countess.

Think of all the fairy tales that start with a motherless child and a hapless, grieving father who turns his back on the child because the child’s very existence stirs up painful memories and feelings.

I hate those Fairy Tales and always wanted to slap those selfish fathers. That said, I have never suffered the death of a spouse, so what do I know. Who am I to judge?

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Why is it either/or? A dead husband and a newborn baby would leave plenty of room for ppd, ppa, grieving, and/or plain old depression.

J

It looks more like grief to me, given the way the episode unfolds. Her catalyst for starting to improve is more external than internal. Of course, it’s fiction either way, but that would be my guess.

Roogirl

It doesn’t seem like she has PPD, and her depression is most likely due to her grieving and the way her family treated her following Matthew’s death. Even her fear of not being a good mother was related to her loss – she feared her better, more “loving” qualities died with her husband. Once she realized that many in the household (just not her father) understood how strong and capable she is, she seemed to snap out of her fog.

On a side note, I love how her grandmother said “there’s more than one kind of good mother “.

Anagha

Just like you said i haven’t undergone these circumstances, so who am i to judge. But it was heart wrenching to see the baby raised by a mean nanny and there was so little involvement of the mother in baby. If it is not PPD and simply grief, I think any mother will come out of it as a fighter for the sake of her baby. All mothers are strong and fighters when it comes to the baby’s well-being!

Jlynn

We also do not have a TV and I had to wait to watch it online just now. I did not want to read your post until I did dare you give away any of the ending.
She did improve greatly by the end but I think it was some what how she was treated. Left to stew in her own emotions. That is not good nor healthy for anyone. You end up just wallowing farther into your grief.
Through out the show you have never really seen a very caring or loving side of Mary except towards Mathew and even that took a lot of time. I think her personality can be cold and harsh. I think she looked forward to having a family and to having a child for Mathew. In that time that is what women did, they had babies for their husbands and if they didn’t they were looked down upon. She struggled to get pregnant and it was an issue with her.
I can only imagine all the thoughts that are running through her head. Then being allowed to sit alone with those thoughts not talking to anyone or doing anything would just make matters worse.

http://www.rowenas-ramblings.blogspot.com/ SnowyRow

I just finished watching the first episode of the new season, and I must say, it looked an awful lot like dead-husband-mourning to me. I am fairly certain that if I had lost my husband on the day of our first son’s birth, I would have gone damned near psychotic, and I can completely understand being in that depression for months on end.

Even given the few scenes she does have with the baby, I have a hard time calling it PPD. Although, like Frances says, why does it have to be either/or?

She does seem to perk up quite a bit at the end of the episode, though, and she does profess to strongly care for her son’s well-being. So I don’t think we’ll be given any more chances to mull over what, exactly, it is that has/had her down. I’m not sure it was meant to be a question in the first place…

http://www.numbmum.com/ Betsy Shaw

I’ve seen the entire episode now and I agree, while she spent little to no time with her baby, she did seem revived by the end. Nothing like news of a large inheritance to lift one’s spirits. Kidding. Sort of. And how creepy was that Nanny?

Angela

Hello Betsy, somewhat off-topic, but have you seen this BBC article about the history of bottle-feeding babies? My great-aunt was “spoon-fed” in the 1920s after her mother died of (suspected) appendicitis soon after giving birth, I never questioned it, but it seems that non-breast-fed babies weren’t uncommon, and bottle-fed babies have a much better time of it now than they used to!http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25629934

http://www.numbmum.com/ Betsy Shaw

Thanks for the link, Angela.

Jessica

I don’t think she is suffering from PPD. I think she is just grieving the loss of her husband. And as for the comment she made about thinking she may not be a good mother, you have to know her character and her past. Before Matthew she felt that she was a cold person, as did most people that knew her, but Matthew saw tenderness inside of her a brought it out in her. So without Matthew, and his death making her feel empty inside, she wonders aloud if she’ll be able to be a good mother without his influence.

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